Kouichi's Zodiac
by Nari228
Summary: Crossover with FruitsBasket. Kouichi has been avoiding Koji ever since they came back from the Digital World, and Koji finds out why. Kouichi is possessed by the spirit of the horse from the Chinese Zodiac. Features characters from season 3 & 4.
1. Chapter 1

**Kouichi's Zodiac**

**Hey…This is ilovekisa-san! I'm a newbie here and this is my first fanfiction ever so…well…I hope you enjoy the story! Please Read&Review!!!!!! Any constructive criticism is welcome. **

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Digimon characters!! I wished I did though…sigh

**Chapter 1: Seeing Kouichi Again**

"Hey, Koji!" Takuya Kanbara shouted. The black-haired boy paused and turned around, allowing his goggle-headed friend to catch up with him. Takuya was now panting and breathing hard.

Koji Minamoto stared at Takuya half amused. Takuya finally caught his breath and smiled brightly up at his friend. "Hey, you going home?"

Koji nodded. It had been 3 months since he had come back from the Digital World. And he hadn't heard from his twin brother since. He had met his brother Kouichi Kimura after their long years of separation. Then, he watched his brother die at Lucemon's hands and he couldn't do anything about it. When he and the others came back to the human world, they had rushed to the hospital, only to leave there more worried and confused than ever.

_Flashback_

_Koji and his friends rushed to the hospital, their feet pounding the floor of the building. Koji had rushed up to the reception desk. The woman at the desk stared at him sternly._

"_May I help you?" she asked._

"_My name is Koji," he gasped. "And I'm here to see my brother, Kouichi Kimura."_

"_I'm so sorry. Kouichi Kimura was just released from the hospital 15 minutes ago," the receptionist informed him._

"_What!? Where did he go? Did he tell you anything when he left?"_

"_I'm sorry, no," she said gently. "He just thanked the doctors for taking care of him and left."_

_End Flashback_

And ever since that day, he had never seen Kouichi, not on the streets and not at the train station. Every time the phone rang, Koji had eagerly picked it up thinking it was Kouichi. 'Kouichi, where are you right now?' Koji always found himself wondering.

"Hello… Earth to Koji," Koji snapped back up from his thoughts. Takuya was looking at him worriedly.

"You were thinking about Kouichi again, weren't you?" Koji nodded.

"I bet you miss him, huh?" Nod. "And you're worried about him." Nod again.

"Well, I don't blame you. If my little brother disappeared like that, I wouldn't be able to think straight or do anything right!" Koji nodded and smirked. He doubted that Takuya could even think straight right now.

Takuya went red. "You know what I mean!"

"Okay, okay. Thanks a lot, Takuya. I guess that makes me feel better…"

"Anything to help you, buddy!" Takuya grinned.

They continued walking until they saw a familiar blond figure. Zoe Orimoto was standing outside an ordinary looking grocery store, staring at its doors.

"Hey! Zoe! What's so amazing? Mind letting Koji and me in on the secret?!"

Zoe didn't react. She turned to look at Takuya and Koji with bewilderment registered on her face. "I just saw Kouichi go inside that store with a brown-haired girl."

The two boys were shocked upon the statement. Takuya laughed nervously. "Are you sure you weren't just seeing things, Zoe?"

"No, I'm sure it was him." Zoe said softly but with strong confidence.

At that moment, the doors to the store slid open, revealing none other than Kouichi Kimura. Kouichi stopped dead in the doorway as he saw his brother and his friends. He looked just as surprised and shocked to see them as they were of him.

Then, a pretty, brown-haired girl with a cheerful expression on her face emerged behind Kouichi, holding bags of groceries.

"Kouichi-kun, I- Oops!" The girl lost her balance and she fell forward, crashing into Kouichi. The bags of groceries were sent flying into the air, but miraculously Takuya and Zoe managed to catch them all.

As the girl crashed into Kouichi, she accidently hugged him around the middle. There was a small exploding sound with a poof of smoke. Kouichi was gone, and in his place, there was a black horse.

**Well, this was my first chapter of my fanfiction. Please let me know if I made any mistakes or if something doesn't make sense. And once again, please read&review!!!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Kouichi's Zodiac**

**Hi, ilovekisa-san here! Thank you to everyone who reviewed!! You are all so awesome and so nice!! I hope lots more of you review. And any ideas and suggestions are welcome- well here it is the second chapter…**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Digimon characters!! I wished I did though…sigh

**Chapter 2: Tranformations and Explanations**

Zoe, Koji, and Takuya stared at the black horse that had appeared after the brown-haired girl had fallen on top of Kouichi. The three friends were speechless, but the girl totally freaked out.

"Kyaaaaahh!!!!! I'm sorry! I'm SO SORRY!!!! I'm such an idiot! How could I be so klutzy?! I fell on top of you and made you transform!!! I'M SO SORRY!!!!!" the girl said on her hands and knees, while facing the other direction and punishing herself.

"Umm…it's all right…you didn't do it on purpose and nobody really got hurt…" said the horse in Kouichi's voice, sweatdropping.

The other three that were watching sweat-dropped as well. Then, two new figures walked into the scene. One boy had silver hair and large, beautiful violet eyes along with a somewhat feminine-looking face. One could have confused him for a girl. The other had orange hair with fierce looking red eyes that seemed to reflect his temper and his personality.

"Is everything all right Honda-san…" the silver-haired boy started but his voice trailed off and he sweat-dropped as well when he saw the other two boys and girl. "Oh my…"

"It's your own damn fault that you let this happen!" the orange-haired boy grumbled. "Could you get any clumsier?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I accidentally fell on top of Kouichi-kun! I should have been more careful. I'm so sorry! Please don't get mad," the girl explained pleadingly.

"None of this is your fault, Honda-san," the silver-haired said sympathetically. "The stupid cat doesn't have any right to tell you off like that."

"What did you just call me, you damn rat?!" the orange hair retorted angrily.

All the while, the horse had said nothing and done nothing it had just laid there patiently waiting for the three teenagers to finish up, looking more exhausted than alarmed or disturbed of the fact that an argument was starting between the two teenage boys.

"And how are we going to explain this mess to _them_?!" orange hair demanded, pointing to Koji, Zoe, and Takuya.

For the first time, the girl named Honda-san seemed to notice Koji and the others.

"Wait, Kouichi-kun is there, but Kouichi-kun is here too!! Ahh! There are two Kouichi-kuns??!" The girl started to panic once more.

"What the hell??! Why are there two Kouichi?" the orange hair demanded to know.

"If you brain was functioning properly, you would have known that that is Koji, Kouichi's brother, stupid cat," the silver-haired boy explained coolly.

"Shut up! I knew that!"

"Of course you did." (Sarcasm)

"Really? You have a brother Kouichi-kun? Uwah! Uwah! You're so lucky! How come you never said anything about him before, Kouichi-kun?" the girl seemed absolutely delighted at this discovery.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I should introduce myself. My name is Tohru Honda, and this is Yuki-kun (as she pointed to the silver-haired boy) and Kyo-kun (as she pointed to the orange-haired boy)," the girl named Tohru Honda said cheerfully.

"You're probably looking for some explanation," said Yuki. "Come with us and we'll have a talk in privacy. You come too, Kouichi," Yuki added to the horse.

The horse nodded. It stood up, took the groceries from Takuya and Zoe, and started to follow Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru. Takuya, Koji, and Zoe stood there, bewildered, wondering if they should trust these strangers and if they should follow them. And they, especially Koji, wanted to know what had just taken place and what was going on. Why had Kouichi hid from them? What secret did he have that he tried to hide from them? These were some of the many questions that came up in their minds, and they figured that if they were going to get some answers, they'd have to take a chance and follow their strange, new acquaintances. They trudged in silence until they came to a graceful, old-fashioned house. It had tilted roofs and sliding paper doors. The one named Yuki led them inside and into a clean, bright kitchen.

"Please sit down," Yuki said pointing to the chairs on the table. "You must have many questions."

"Kouichi, you can go upstairs and change" The horse nodded and went out the kitchen. Then they heard a faint, poofing sound, and Kouichi came back into the kitchen several minutes later fully redressed. He was staring at the floor and his face was red. He determinedly avoided Koji's, Zoe's, and Takuya's gazes as he walked to the table and seated himself next to Tohru.

At that moment, the door opened. "Yuki, Kouichi, Kyo-who-is-still-as-bad-tempered-as-ever-and-can't-beat-Yuki-after-all-those-months-of-training (Kyo scowled at this point), and my sweet, beautiful flower- Tohru(!), I'm home! I hope you didn't destroy the house while I was out!" sang out a loud and playful voice.

"Hello, Shigure-san," greeted Tohru brightly. Everybody else ignored him.

"What's this, nobody except for my sweet Tohru acknowledges my existence!!! Oh! What has the world come to?!" Shigure cried out in an overdramatic tone, pretending to be hurt and offended.

Then he noticed the three unlikely visitors. "Oh, what's this? It looks like we have company!"

"Shigure, you remember Koji, don't you?" said Yuki as he gestured towards the speechless figure that had been previously mentioned.

"Koji? Of course I remember him he was such a sweet baby!" Then Shigure saw Koji. "(Gasp) Koji-kun is that you? My goodness! You've changed so much!"

"Koji and his little friends happen to run into Kouichi, and they saw his little zodiac thing," Yuki explained with what seemed like a hint of amusement in his voice.

Shigure laughed. Kouichi turned redder and hid his face in his hands.

"Sorry, Kouichi-chan. We're not trying to embarrass you or anything like that," Shigure said with a grin on his face.

"This is getting stupid," Kyo groaned. "I'm leaving this dump."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," said Yuki unfeelingly. "Does this conversation bore you? I didn't realize that we aren't good enough for you, stupid cat-san."

This was the last straw for Kyo. "You filthy, damn rat!!" Kyo lunged at Yuki.

"NOOO!!" This scream had come from Tohru. When Kyo had lunged, she had jumped as well. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Tohru closed in on Kyo, embracing him. Yuki and Kouichi gasped at the same time. Shigure only sweat-dropped. In moments, there was a small explosion with a puff of smoke as Kyo was transformed into an orange cat. Tohru and the orange cat both crashed to the floor. Tohru got up, and started to wobble around. She tried to grab the table for support but missed, only to crash into Yuki and Shigure, hugging them both. There were two more puffs of smoke as Yuki and Shigure were turned into a rat and a dog.

"Just great! All of us just had to transform right here right now, huh?" the orange cat hissed.

"You have nobody to blame but yourself!" the rat cried. "If only you didn't lose your temper, we wouldn't have transformed!"

"So now the blame's on me again?!"

"That's enough, you two!" the dog barked. "Instead of arguing, we should tell them the truth about us; they're probably going to get their memories erased by Hatori anyway."

The dog faced and addressed Takuya, Koji, and Zoe, "As you might have already guessed, I'm the dog, Yuki's the rat, and Kyo is the cat. Oh, and Kouichi is the horse, I believe you saw his zodiac form as well. We and nine other people from our family are possessed by the vengeful spirits of the animals from the Chinese Zodiac. Everytime a zodiac member is hugged by the opposite sex or when we get weak we transform into our animals. Of course we don't stay like this forever. We change back at random times; we can't control when we change back, so we can't give any warnings. And…"

The room filled with puffing sounds and smoke once more. "…we're always naked when we change back."

Both Zoe and Tohru blushed furiously and turned away, embarrassed at the sight of three naked men standing in the middle of the kitchen. Takuya looked slightly entertained by all this yet he was also somewhat disturbed by seeing naked bodies. Koji and Kouichi was also disturbed and embarrassed at seeing what they saw and looked away until the three men changed back into their clothes again.

"Well I think we caused enough problems for one day," Shigure said brightly. "Yuki, Kyo, why don't we leave and let Kouichi catch up with his friends?"

"Y-yes, I have to go and do the laundry now," Tohru added in still recovering form the previous event."

They (Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure) left the kitchen, and there was an uneasy silence as everybody in the room just sat there unsure of what to say or do.

**Darn…this chapter didn't quite turn out the way I expected it to or how I wanted it to be. I hate it when I have a perfectly good idea and then I forget it so I end up writing something else! Still, I hope you enjoy reading it and please, please review!!!!! And tell me what you think of it and if I made any mistakes. And if you have any ideas that you want to share with me for putting into the story that would be great because I myself am not sure what is going to happen next. Is Koji going to get mad at Kouichi? Is Hatori going to erase Takuya, Koji, and Zoe's memories? I'll still have to think about it. Tell me what you want to happen in the story and I might take it into consideration…This is ilovekisa-san, signing out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Kouichi's Zodiac**

**Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for being so patient with me. I was really busy- I had to finish my science project (turn in the abstract, display board, forms, and all that). And I am still working on my History and French projects and my list goes on forever. Here's my next chapter… I did my best, so please don't be too disappointed with me.**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon or Fruits Basket (sob)

**Chapter 3: Kouichi's Story**

There was silence in the kitchen, and then-

"Why did you avoid me?" This question had come from Koji. "Why did you just disappear like that? I was so worried about you. I don't care if you're cursed. You're my brother, and I'll always love you. I'd thought that you'd know that by now."

Kouichi finally looked at Koji in the eye. Then, he gave in to the tears that he had been trying very hard to hold back. He cried, spilling tears onto the table and onto his clothes. Takuya and Zoe, understanding how the situation must be embarrassing for Kouichi, pretended to not see him crying.

"I'm so sorry! I wanted to tell you! I really wanted to see you again, Koji, it was killing me!" Kouichi said continuing to cry.

Kouichi continued to cry for several more minutes. He felt dirty, and his guilt was doubled because Koji was being so kind and understanding. He felt guilty because he had doubted Koji's love for him; he had been afraid that Koji would leave him and stop loving him if he knew the truth. He didn't want to loose Koji like he lost _her_. She was always there for him, always cheering him up. Then, Akito had made Hatori suppress her memories and that was the last that he had seen of her. Sometimes, when he walked on the streets he would see _her_, but she would walk right past him, barely noticing him. And then, the pain would come back, the pain of loosing an important person in his life. It was the some feeling that he had when his father had left him and his mother, taking away Koji. He was merely four years old at the time, but he still remembered that day. It was as if it was permanently carved into his brain, and he dreamed of it often.

_Flashback_

_It had been a warm, sunny June day. Kouichi was playing tag with Koji and some other children at the back of the estate. After a good, long game, the twins went back to their house tired but happy. Koji went inside to take a bath, and Kouichi was about to follow when he saw Akito coming his way. Akito wasn't as cruel back then as he was now, but he still had the bad temper and the illnesses._

_He was smiling in a way that told Kouichi that bad news was coming._

"_Hey guess what, Kouichi? Your parents are getting divorced; they even came and told me." Akito said without even a hint of remorse in his voice._

"_You're lying!" Kouichi yelled back at the young head of the family. "My parents love each other!"_

"_You mean they _loved_ each other," Akito said smirking. "I always knew he would lose it one day! He might love your mom and Koji, but he just can't stand you. He hates you! I thought that would have been obvious by now. Why would anyone want a son that turns into an animal, that's just freakish! You should know, one day even Koji will leave you. He'll get sick of you. But then again, he's probably leaving with your dad, and Hatori will wipe his memory with your dad's. That means that he'll leave before he gets to be disgusted with you."_

"_NO! No! That's not true! They'll never do that! You're wrong!" Then Kouichi ran inside before Akito could say anything else._

_(Later on)_

"_Boys..." the twins' mother began slowly._

_The pair snapped their attention toward their mother. During the four years of their lives, their mother had only called them boys when she was stressed, tired, or upset. Both brothers saw that their parents were acting very strange this evening. Tomoko looked rather depressed, and Kousei was biting his lips and looking very grim._

"_Papa and I decided that it would be best that we spend some time... apart"_

"_You mean that you're getting divorced?!" Kouichi squeaked._

"_That's a rather blunt way to put it but yes. I'm afraid we are," Tomoko said sadly._

"_It's because of me isn't it?!" Kouichi burst into tears. "I'm a horrible person! And you're getting divorced because of me! Do you hate me?"_

"_Kouichi, listen," his father said in a firm, no-nonsense tone. "It's not that I hate you. It's just that- well- a man can only take so much, and I think I just about reached my limits. I just don't know how to love you anymore. Some things weren't meant to be... Do you understand?"_

_Kouichi did not understand. He had thought his father loved him. Had Akito been right about everything that he said? Had his father always felt this way about him? Kouichi buried his head in his pillow, trying to make all his depressing thoughts go away._

"_Kouichi?" a gentle, warm voice came to Kouichi's ear. A voice that he knew all too well._

_He lifted his head and saw his loving mother standing in the doorway, her face full of worry for her young son. He ran to his mother and buried his face in her soft, silky kimono. He let her embrace him. He was transformed into a horse right on the spot. Tomoko looked down sadly at the figure that was lying at her feet._

"_Do you hate me too?" Kouichi the horse asked his mother._

"_No! I could never hate you! Papa doesn't hate you either! Things have been very difficult for Papa, and he is not feeling well. And the doctor said that if he forgot he'd feel better," Tomoko looked at Kouichi pleadingly. "Please Kouichi, this is very hard for me too. I know that it will be very different without Papa, but Mama will love you twice as much to make up for Papa's love."_

_End of Flashback_

And so, just like that, Hatori had erased Kousei and Koji's memories, and Kousei and Tomoko got divorced. Then, four more years later, Kouichi was told by Akito that his father had remarried to another woman, a woman named Satomi.

Then, Kouichi had felt as if his life was over. His father had a new family now, and Kouichi was hardly welcome to it. He had not spoken for days, but then something happened in his life. Something that he had not counted on. Something that made life worth living again.

_Flashback_

"_Hi!" piped up a voice behind Kouichi._

_Kouichi thought that the voice had been directed at someone else, so he decided to ignore it._

"_Hey! Don't ignore me! I'm talking to you!" the voice said again with a slight tone of annoyance._

_Kouichi turned around and saw the source of the voice. There was a pretty girl with orange-ish brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a light blue t-shirt and a long, black skirt that reached down to her ankle._

"_Are you going home already?" the girl asked in a calm and cool voice._

"_Um, yeah, I really need to go home now. Mother is probably getting worried about me," Kouichi said a little too quickly._

"_Hmm, I don't think your mother will mind that much, and I don't think Akito will care too much either if you came home just an hour late."_

"_Huh? But how-"_

"_Relax," the girl said reassuringly. "I'm in the zodiac too. My name's Rika, and I'm the rooster."_

_So, Kouichi had agreed, somewhat reluctantly to play a couple of soccer games with Rika. He had looked at her again and remembered seeing her at the New Year's Banquet, even though he had never spoken to her before._

_Rika had taken Kouichi to the park, and she had introduced him to other kids his age that were also in the zodiac. There was Takato the monkey, Henry the sheep, and Jeri the cow._

_Kouichi also learned about their personalities while playing with them. Henry seemed to be the calm one and said very few words, but when he did every word he said seemed to count. Takato was very energetic and outgoing and his personality could be compared to Takuya's. Jeri was very sweet and quiet at most times, but when she snapped she had the temper of a raging bull. Kouichi had a very strong impression that Takato had a bit of a crush on Jeri. Jeri also seemed to care about Takato and was always looking out for him, pulling him out of sticky spots and keeping him from getting into too much trouble._

_Finally, in a long time, Kouichi felt happy. He treasured his friendship with these four zodiac members._

_End of Flashback_

Kouichi came out of his thoughts and looked across the table at his brother. Koji had been waiting patiently as he had been going through these memories.

"Koji?" the name came out uncertainly.

"What is it?"

"So, I don't disgust you?" Kouichi asked.

"About what? This whole zodiac thing or you making him worry about you by staying away from him?" Takuya butted in, but was quickly silenced by an icy glare from Koji and a kick in the shin from Zoe.

Koji sighed. "Well, this is all really surprising and happening rather fast. But still… this is a part of you, and I know this is going to take me a while to get used to. I mean if someone told me that you were cursed I would have thought that they were crazy or just trying to pull a weird joke. But now, I'm not sure what to think. If I was in your place, I would hate the entire world; I know that I could never bear a curse like that. Please, just promise me that you'll stop dodging me, okay?"

Kouichi nodded and smiled. 'How is it… that you knew what I wanted? You told me all the things that I needed to hear. Things won't be easy…but I'll try too. I don't know how things are going to turn out or what Akito's reaction will be when he hears what happened…but I'll keep trying. I won't give in to despair, not like how I did with Sakura. This time I won't give up so easily.'

**Wow! This is my longest chapter yet:) Please read & review! I'll post up the next chapter after at least three reviews- unless I miraculously get a really good idea. Suggestions are still welcome. Oh, and a million thanks to those who reviewed last time please keep reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Kouichi's Zodiac**

**Hi! I'm so sorry for not updating! I have soo much homework that I can't find time to write any stories. It's going to take a lot of time for me to update between stories, but I'll be able to update faster during spring break and summer vacation. And I was also sad because nobody reviewed after I got my third one…Sob…Please review and enjoy the story.**

**Chapter 4: Going to see Akito**

Koji was standing (well, more like leaning against the wall) in a silent room. He was at the main house, waiting for his fateful encounter with Akito. He looked across the room at the doctor that was sitting in the chair and pouring over what looked like paperwork. The young doctor looked up. He saw Koji staring at him and nodded grimly at him. The man had been introduced to Koji as Hatori. Hatori didn't say much, but Koji didn't mind, since he wasn't much of a talker either. According to Kouichi, Hatori was a zodiac member as well and he was the one who erased all the memories of the people on the "outside" that accidentally discovered the family's secret. Kouichi's mother had been an outside person as well- until Kouichi was born. Koji knew that Hatori would erase his memories unless Akito said something against it, which was not likely.

A maid peered into the room. "Akito-san will see you now."

Koji glanced one more time at Hatori, but he didn't look back. Instead, he was frowning at something that was written on the paper.

Koji followed the maid, who led him through various twisting corridors. The building was a confusing maze with halls that were dark and gloomy.

They finally arrived at their destination.

"Wait here," the maid ordered. She knocked and went inside. Koji heard her say something that was indistinct and heard a response that was also indistinct yet loud enough to tell that it was rude and harsh.

The maid came out looking unhappy and embarrassed. She jerked her head towards the door. "Go in, he's waiting for you." And then, she quickly fled leaving Koji all by himself.

"What's taking so long?!! I'm losing my patience!!"

Koji swallowed. He took a deep breath and stepped through the door.

**I know. This chapter is really short. It's pretty obvious who that voice belonged to. If you want to find out what happens next, please review!!!!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Kouichi's Zodiac**

**I just wanted to apologize to everyone for making the previous chapter so short (especially to Evide who seemed to be very unhappy with me for the short chapter). So this time I made this chapter longer. The reason I made that last chapter short was because I still was struggling on what would happen between Koji and Akito. And to clarify one more thing, just in case you didn't know, there will be no Digimon coming out in this story (only human characters). But right now I'm working on a second Digimon fanfiction story which _will_ have Digimon in it. Now on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon or Fruits Basket. And I accidentally forgot to put a disclaimer in chapter 4 so I'm putting this disclaimer for both chapters, OK?

**Chapter 5: The Decision**

"Come in already!" the voice sounded very irritated.

Koji took a deep breath and stepped inside. The room was large and spacious. It was full of luxurious, antique-looking furnitures. Koji also couldn't help but notice that somebody had painted the walls black (and did a poor job of it too). The lone figure sitting in the room was wearing a loose-fitting yutaka. He had black hair and black eyes. He was sitting by the window when Koji came in.

Akito fixedly stared at Koji, studying him from head to toe. "You're really ugly," Akito announced finally.

Koji tried not to grimace. He had been warned that Akito would probably be saying cruel things to Koji, but that statement really caught him off guard. He wondered what kinds of things Akito said to Kouichi.

"Akito likes to test people," he had been told. It was déjà vu. "Koji likes to test people…" Koji had lost count of how many times his father had said that to visiters, his teachers, Satomi (when they had first met), and many more.

"Says you!" Koji spat back. Akito looked a bit taken aback; he obviously wasn't used to people talking back.

"How old are you anyway? Ten?"

"I'm twelve!" Koji shouted indignantly. "How old are _you_?! 17?"

"Nineteen!" Akito replied sourly.

"Look," Koji said trying not to lose his temper, his patience was wearing thin. "If all you're going to do is sit around and insult me, I don't know what you called me in here for!"

Akito looked furious. "How dare you talk to me that way! Where did you learn to be so vicious? I am the head of this family! Your brother belongs to me. You are no match against me; I can separate you and that stupid horse forever! Why, you should be begging me on your knees!"

"Like you're the one to talk!" Koji snapped. "It wouldn't hurt for you to learn a little courtesy either!"

Akito opened his mouth to say something, but instead he went into a fit of coughing. The door automatically opened in response. Hatori came in and wrapped Akito up in a blanket, then helped him out of the room. Through the door, Koji could see what looked like half the population of the servants in the building. Koji could feel all the blood rushing to his head. He didn't realize how loud he and Akito had been talking. He, then, felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to see Shigure.

"Wow, that sounded like some conversation you were having with Akito-san," Shigure said in a tone that was somewhere between impressed and worried.

Koji blushed again, "How long have you been listening?"

" I arrived about 10 seconds ago. By that time, there was already a large crowd outside the room," Shigure replied rather bluntly.

"Um, so what's going to happen now?" Koji muttered more to himself than Shigure.

His question was answered by Hatori, who showed up seconds later.

"Akito didn't say anything about erasing your memories, so you can keep them for now. Still, Akito is probably not done with you yet. Be careful. Especially watch what you're saying to Akito. He probably hasn't forgiven you; he's not used to people talking back at him like that." Hatori informed him.

Koji was very annoyed. "Yeah, I sort of figured that…" He felt like he was listening to a broken record. He had already been told to be careful around Akito by Kouichi, Yuki, and Shigure.

(Later at the main house)

"So how are you feeling Akito-san?" Shigure asked, trying to keep his voice light and pleasant.

"How am I feeling?! Why are you asking me a question like that? How do you think I feel after the way that bastard talked to me?! _And why are you smiling like that!!!_" Akito screamed.

"My dear Akito-san, que sera sera. Really, I think you're taking all this a bit too personally," Shigure said trying in vain effort to keep a straight face.

"Did Hatori erase his memories?"

"No not yet. Why? Were planning to have Koji-kun's memories erased?"

"No, he can keep them for now. Sometimes I think I am too kind for my own good. He's nothing like I imagined him. We'll see what happens. He'd better not meddle or mess with my things like that bitch…"

(Next Day)

Koji sat up in his bed and rubbed his head. The morning sun was pouring in through the window. It was a bright Sunday. He glanced at the clock on the wall. 10:45. Both his parents were probably awake by now. They always let Koji sleep in on the weekends. Koji changed out of his bed clothes and went downstairs.

"Oh good, you're awake," his father said. "I was coming to get you. You have a visitor."

Koji found this rather strange. Kouichi never came to his place because they couldn't risk their father seeing him yet. He went into the living room, and there was Akito sitting on the couch.

"What are you doing here?" Koji demanded.

"I came here to clear things up," Akito replied.

"I don't get what you're saying. Why did you come here? To erase my memories?!"

"No," Akito said. "I'm being very kind to you, letting you keep your memories. But I want you to know if you try to 'save' Kouichi like that stupid girl did, you'll just be hurting him and yourself. Don't go meddling and try to destroy our happiness. That's all."

Then, Akito left the room, leaving Koji alone in the room. He stared incredulously into space.

'Well, he did say I could keep my memories, so I guess this means I can see Kouichi,' Koji thought to himself. 'But what did he mean by 'save' Kouichi? Save him from what- the curse? And what did he mean by 'stupid girl'? Did she have anything to do with Kouichi?'

Many more questions arose, and his head was starting to hurt. 'I'm not going to lose Kouichi, so why should the rest of it matter?'

He tried to clear his head from all these confusing thoughts as he went into the kitchen to serve himself some miso soup.

**Well I hope you liked this chapter. The conversations between Akito and Koji was inspired partly by The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and partly by the conversation between Tohru and Akito in volume 11 in Fruits Basket. Maybe I shouldn't have made Koji talk like that to Akito, but I couldn't think of any other way for Koji to approach Akito-san. Please read & review. And I also need someone to be my proofreader/story advisor to tell me if I need to fix a part of the story that is confusing or doesn't make sense, so please help me. Bye for now.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Enter the Rooster (And the Sheep and the Monkey)**

**Yeah, I changed my pen name. I don't know why but I just like the name Nari a lot. I have less and less spare time to write my stories, and I'm not sure myself what's going to happen in the end. If you have any tips, suggestions, or ideas that will be more than welcome. **

"So what did Akito say?"

Koji was at the park with Zoe and Takuya. Koji had promised them that he would tell them what happened. And now here they were trying to wheedle as much information as they could out of Koji, but Koji, being Koji, only stuck with the very basic information.

"He didn't do anything, but he said not to interfere, something about not trying to save Kouichi."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zoe asked. "You don't think Akito is tormenting Kouichi, do you?"

Koji shrugged, but that conversation still mingled in his mind. What Akito had said made little sense. He also hadn't had a chance to meet up with Kouichi yet after his confrontation with Akito. Was Kouichi in danger and not telling him? If he was in danger, was he more threatened by the curse or Akito? So many unanswered questions arose in Koji, and he felt frustrated. Why would Kouichi hide these things from him? Did he not prove himself trustworthy? Was Kouichi afraid of endangering him?

"Poor Kouichi," Takuya sighed. "What kind of friends are we? Leaving Kouichi to suffer all by himself."

Then, they fell silent. All deep in their own thoughts, none of them noticed a distant figure that was watching them from afar.

"So that's Koji Minamoto…" the figure muttered. "Hmm, he really does look a lot like Kouichi. This is going to be interesting."

The next day, Koji set out to find Kouichi. He had looked up Kouichi's address. He found only one Tomoko Kimura in the yellow book.

He remembered hearing from Shigure that Kouichi lived on the outside, so he didn't have to go back to the main house. He arrived to the apartments on the outskirts of town. Here, the building were rather small and crowded, which was different from what Koji was used to, seeing that his neighborhood was big and luxurious.

He finally came to Kouichi's apartment on the second floor. As he was searching for the correct door number, the third to last door opened, and a pretty and feisty looking girl with reddish brown hair came out. She then noticed Koji. She stared at him boldly and frowned as if she was trying to calculate something. At the piercing gaze of the girl, Koji began to shy away. Usually, when the girls looked at him, they would blush or giggle or do some other strange girly thing, trying to get his attention or trying not to let him know that they were staring at him, always giving him the advantage. But this girl obviously wasn't interested in the opposite sex, at least not the way some other girls were.

"Hey, if you're looking for Kouichi, he's not home." the girl informed him. "I just talked to Tomoko-oba-san. He's hanging out at Gure-nii's place. Everybody seems to be going there now, ever since that Tohru Honda moved in there."

"Wait, Gure-nii? Oh, you mean Shigure?"

"Well, duh! Who else could I be talking about? I'm going to go over there myself. You can come if you want to." And without waiting to see if Koji was going to follow her or not, she started to walk away.

Koji decided to follow the girl seeing that she seemed to know what she was doing, and Koji needed to see Kouichi again.

So Koji followed the strange girl through the streets to get to Shigure's house. He didn't want to lose her in the crowd, but he kept his distance from her because he sensed that the girl liked her distance. Then, they came to a red stoplight.

Then, the girl finally turned around and spoke for the first time after leaving the apartments. "I'm Rika, by the way, and you're Koji Minamoto, right? Unless, you're some other long, lost relative of Kouichi."

"…" Koji was both awestruck and disturbed by the fact that a girl he had just met already knew who he was.

Rika sensed this. "Everybody at the main house talks about you. And you look so much like Kouichi that I figured you were his brother," she threw in as an explanation.

Koji nodded, remembering the servants outside the door that had been listening in on his and Akito's conversation. Shigure had told him that he had been the first to talk to Akito like that, and he knew that he caused some stirs that day. But he had no idea that it would be turned into a subject of gossip.

"Anyway, I've been to Gure-nii's house couple of times, but this is my first time seeing that Tohru Honda," Rika continued. "The guys never stop talking about her. Everybody keeps talking about her like she's a saint. She's also supposed to do cooking and house chores, so I suppose the house will be clean. The place was a dump the last time I visited."

Finally, Koji and Rika reached their destination. The lights were on and the house seemed to be very animated that night. They could hear lively chattering and shouting. As they got closer, they could make out what the voices were saying.

"ARRGH! That's it I can't take this anymore. Men fight with their fists! Come on, you damn rat, let's take this outside!" came the voice of Kyo.

"Don't go breaking my house again, Kyo-kun," they heard Shigure whimper inside.

"My gosh! Kyo-nii is a sore loser," said a voice that was unfamiliar to Koji.

"Shut up, you stupid monkey!"

Rika smirked, then she walked up to the door and knocked. The door slid open.

"Oh, Rika-chan and Koji-kun! What a lovely surprise. Come in, everyone is in the living room." Shigure said, stepping aside to let them in.

They went to the living room, and found it crowded. There were Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, Kouichi, and 2 other people that were unfamiliar to Koji.

"Koji-kun, I'd like you to meet Henry. He's the sheep of the zodiac," Shigure introduced, pointing to the boy with blue hair and the calm expression. "And that," he continued pointing to the boy next to Henry with brown hair, "is Takato. He's the year of the monkey!"

"And I see that you already met Rika," Yuki added quietly.

"Yeah! Rika's the year of the rooster!" Takato added in giddily.

Rika groaned. "You just had to tell him everything, _did you_?"

"Uwah! I'm so happy to finally meet you Rika-san. I get to meet another member of the zodiac! This must be my lucky night! Now all there's left is cow-san. Cow-san is a female right? Because there are few female members in the zodiac, and you're one of them! I must say, this is all so surprising! "

"Yeah, I know. You'd think that the zodiac rooster would be a guy, right?" Takato chimed.

Tohru blushed. " Not really! Well, I mean yes. I am a little surprised…but not that much- I mean-um, that is… I'm sorry…" Tohru said punishing herself against the wall.

"Please, Honda-san, don't be too hard on yourself. You did nothing wrong." Yuki said.

"That's right!" Takato said brightly. "And you have to see Rika's zodiac form. It's lotsa fun!"

"Not as funny as Haa-san's form, though," Shigure commented.

"Shut up both of you or I will personally kick your asses through the roof!" Rika threatened vehemently, seriously ticked off now.

Koji tried to imagine Rika as rooster but it was just too weird. He tried changing the subject.

"Hey, um…" then he noticed the cards scattered across the floor. "What's this?" he wondered out loud more to himself than anyone else.

"We're playing Dai Hin Min!" Tohru exclaimed excitedly.

"We were, that is," Yuki sighed.

"I know! Since Koji-kun and Rika-san came, why don't we start a new game?" Tohru suggested.

"Okay."

"Do you know how to play Dai Hin Min, Koji-kun?" Tohru asked.

"Um…no"

"It's okay," Takato chimed in. "I'll teach you. I think you'll be a natural. Even Kouichi here isn't too shabby."

Kouichi ignored Takato's comment and instead scooted to make room for Koji to sit down between him and Yuki. And Rika sat between Takato and Henry.

"Fine, I'm going to beat damn Yuki this time!" Kyo declared aggressively.

"Yeah, when pigs get wings." Rika commented.

"Shut up, punk! I'll crush you too!"

"We'll just see about that."

"Yay! Let's play!" Takato cheered.

"Stop being so damn cheerful!"

"Kouichi-kun, why don't you cut the deck?" Tohru offered.

"Oh- um, okay…"

Koji looked at his brother. For the first time that night, Kouichi looked back, and he smiled his gentle smile. Koji was then pulled into a fast, crazy round of Dai Hin Min. He wondered if he was ever going to get to talk to Kouichi alone.

'Oh, well…' he thought. 'I guess I'll just talk to him after this game.'

"Stop cheating!"

"I'm not cheating!"

"Wow, Koji, you're really good at this!"

"Of course, it's because I'm helping him!"

And the game continued onto the evening.

Hackcough "Oh, my throat…" Rika moaned.

"Maybe if you hadn't yelled so much, your throat wouldn't hurt," Henry said.

"Whatever, hey Gure-nii can you get me some water?"

"Right away, Rika-chan!"

"Well, that was fun!" Tohru chimed.

"Yeah, well, gotta go. My mom's gonna be yelling at me again if I stay out too late." Takato said. "See ya!"

"I gotta go too," Henry said. "My parents are gonna go out, and I promised to watch after Suzie."

Now only Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, Rika, Kouichi, and Koji were left in the room.

"Um, wanna go for a walk?" Kouichi asked.

Koji nodded, "Okay."

"Don't stay out too long and don't get lost"

"Yuki, you sound like my mother," Rika said annoyed.

"Don't worry, we won't," Kouichi promised, and went out with Koji following.

**So that's Chapter 6. Don't expect any updates for a long time because my mom is banning me from the internet until finals are over. And I could really use some suggestions for both my stories, so if you have any you can e-mail me or private message me. I'll check them as soon as my sentence is over. And once again please review!!**


	7. Chapter 7

I am officially discontinuing both my stories. I won't be coming back. Sorry! -_-


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